UPDATE: PDC pledges $20 million for affordable housing

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Mayor Charlie Hales met today with North and Northeast Portland leaders to discuss reviving a deal for a Trader Joe's grocery on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, four sources tell WW."That was part of the discussion," says James Posey, the co-founder of the Portland chapter of the National Association of Minority Contractors. He attended today's meeting. "It was all positive. Most of the ...
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Food & Drink
The Gypsy Restaurant and Lounge closed suddenly on February 20, ending a run of at least two decades as a disco-balled Nob Hill dive offering fishbowls of booze.The club has posted a sign saying its owner, Concept Entertainment, has decided to sell. The Gypsy immediately deleted both its Facebook page and its website last week. The bar's cached web page still advertised Mardi Gras ...
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Mayor Charlie Hales has responded to calls for increased walking safety in East Portland by saying he’s focused on finding new taxes and fees to fund streets and sidewalks. His office says a new fee plan, pushed by Hales and City Commissioner Steve Novick, could be on the November ballot. “That’s likely to go to voters this year,” says Hales spokesman Dana Haynes. “And that’s a real, long-term ...
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Portland Mayor Charlie Hales is dealing with the latest allegation of misconduct by his staff—a civil rights complaint by a mayoral aide charging that chief of staff Gail Shibley discriminated against him for being HIV-positive. The mayor says he won't comment until a state investigation is finished.Hales is going to have to wait.The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, which investigates workplace ...
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An aide to Mayor Charlie Hales says chief of staff Gail Shibley discriminated against him for being HIV-positive.

News Stories
A staffer in Mayor Charlie Hales’ office has filed a state
civil rights complaint alleging that the mayor’s chief of staff, Gail
Shibley, pressured him into revealing that he is HIV-positive a
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Mayor's chief of staff subject of civil rights complaint.

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A staffer in Mayor Charlie Hales’ office has filed a state civil rights complaint alleging that the mayor’s chief of staff, Gail Shibley, pressured him into revealing that he is HIV-positive and then verbally harassed him because of his illness. In a complaint filed Jan. 14 with the state Bureau of Labor and Industries, the staffer says Shibley called him a “skank” and said his previous ...
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Former Hales aide was suspended for remarks about County Commissioner Loretta Smith

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Former Portland mayoral aide Baruti Artharee earned notoriety and a suspension last summer for making suggestive remarks about County Commissioner Loretta Smith. Artharee, who was then public safety advisor to Mayor Charlie Hales, confirmed in a June 9 interview with WW that he made the remarks at a June 6, 2013 gathering at the Quartet Restaurant."I said, 'Here's our beautiful commissioner, Loretta ...
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News
Mayor Charlie Hales is compiling of wish list of potential new taxes and fees to fund the cash-strapped Portland Bureau of Transportation. But he won't be calling any of them a "carbon tax." WW reported in November that Hales had ditched his proposed city carbon tax—a combination of gas tax and power utility tax—once a phone survey showed voters disliked it.Hales confirmed that decision to The ...
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News Stories
It’s a quarter to 9 on the coldest night so far this year,
and a 64-year-old man named Misha waits for a turn to sleep in a tent
with strangers.
Right 2 Dream Too—the
iconic homeless camp
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UPDATE: Camp likely to reject offer, its lawyer says.

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UPDATE, 5:30 pm: The lawyer for homeless camp Right 2 Dream Too says the camp is likely to turn down the warehouse site offered by Mayor Charlie Hales today. "It does not appear that the Hoyt Street option is a viable option," Mark Kramer says. "It would put Right 2 Dream Too out on the street in 15 months."Kramer tells WW he'll meet with the Right 2 Dream Too board tomorrow, but that he still believes ...
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